Churches Propel Child Witch Hunts in Africa

The Los Angeles Times reports that rogue churches and pastors may be involved in fully half of cases against "witch children" in Africa. "It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity," said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping StonesNigeria. Poverty and lack of education make families susceptible to accusations, and willing to follow pastors who proclaim the Biblical injunction of "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The fast spread of evangelical Christianity, paired with traditional beliefs, has contributed to the roughly 15,000 alleged cases of "child witchcraft" in Nigeria. About 1,000 of those children were killed. "When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

World Poverty Limits Access to Scripture, Group Says

Christian Newswire reports that world poverty is especially troubling because it limits people's access to and ability to read the Scriptures, according to Faith Comes By Hearing. The Population Reference Bureau's (PRB) reports that about half the world lives on $2 a day. "The world's poorest of the poor are cut off from the Bible," said Morgan Jackson, Faith Comes By Hearing's international director. "Half of the world's people are illiterate and too poor to afford a Bible. Five of six African believers will never own a Bible. And when people don't have Scripture in a format they can use and understand the results can be devastating to villages and whole countries." Morgan said some areas with limited access to Scripture will hear and memorize just one Bible story, building whole doctrines (or even denominations) on it," allowing heresy and false teaching to spread.